A Warm Welcome To Our Newest Members
19 February 2015
Over the past few months we have welcomed a variety of mentoring projects to our membership. New member projects working in a variety of areas, some with well established mentoring projects and others just discovering the benefits that mentoring can bring have joined SMN. All new members have a profile on our website and we encourage anyone interested in these projects to utilise our ‘Mentoring Map’ to find out a bit more about our newest member projects. The details of the lead contact for any mentoring activities within the project is shown on each individual profile.
Below is a list of our newest members and some more information on their work and interest in mentoring:
- Abertay University’s Business Mentoring Programme – The Career Development Centre within Abertay University offers a business mentoring programme, matching students to mentors who will coach / mentor them over a period of 6 months. This is aimed at improving students understanding of the work place and how to improve their chances of getting an appropriate job. The scheme has run for 3 years and there are plans for further development of the project.
- Flip: Disability Equality in the Arts – Disability Equality in the Arts work with arts organisations from across Scotland in a range of capacities from training to organisational development as well as directly supporting disabled artists. We are currently running a project that is providing career development opportunities for disabled artists and this has elements of mentoring involved.
- Highland Council Family Firm and Mentoring – The Family Firm scheme was set up by Highland Council as the largest employer in the Highlands, to provide workplace experiences for looked after children. Family Firm placements are intended to be supportive, flexible and of longer duration than traditional work experience. The young people who will benefit include many who experience difficulties in formal settings and with building trusting relationships. Service staff work with a young person in a mentoring role, and will themselves require training and ongoing support to maximise the potential benefits of the scheme. There is close liaison with the young person’s Lead Professional, to ensure any issues are responded to and addressed at an early stage.
- MCR Pathways – MCR Pathways is as a cross-institutional partnership initiated by Iain MacRitchie through his MCR Foundation and including Glasgow City Council Education Department, Strathclyde University and CELCIS. The project aims to support Glasgow’s most vulnerable looked after young people who need support to build and sustain their own motivation, commitment and resilience (MCR) and to empower their talent to overcome disadvantages they experienced through no fault of their own. MCR Pathways offers weekly mentoring support for looked after and disadvantaged young people in Glasgow schools.
- Royal Scottish National Orchestra – The RSNO, as Scotland’s national orchestra, plays an integral part in Scotland’s musical life. As well as presenting world-class concerts throughout the country and abroad, the orchestra has an active Learning and Engagement team delivering progressive participatory music-making activities across Scotland. With a programme of activity available for new-borns and onwards, the team are committed to delivering the highest quality workshops as well as nurturing and developing new talent. Plans are currently under way to create a mentoring scheme that will allow musicians in the very early stages of a professional orchestral career to build relationships with musicians from the RSNO.
- The National Galleries of Scotland Education Department – The National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) outreach team has recently begun a project with young people, UNTITLED, that has seen art students from Scottish art colleges join the team in order to learn the role of a lead artist using collaborative art practice in a participatory situation. We hope to develop this provision on future projects and a training scheme for social / youth work professionals and CLD workers.
- University of the West of Scotland Widening Participation (Routes for All) – This project aims to encourage S5 and S6 pupils to consider Higher Education options after they have finished their studies at school. The project aims to help pupils in their post-school choices, trying to prepare them to make their transition from school to college or university a bit easier and less daunting. Staff and current university students are utilised to facilitate a series of workshop sessions in secondary schools in the West of Scotland providing advice, answering questions on course choices, routes into different careers and giving information on education in general.
To view our newest member projects or to find existing projects in your local or thematic area please visit our Mentoring Map via the link below.
